Flying Saucers Over Chicago

Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.

Feb 2, 2018

I had intended to take an illustrative photograph of typical Chicago, Illinois showing the old and the new, the demolition in the foreground and the Sears/Willis Tower with its surreal antennas in the background. This 110-story, 1,450-foot skyscraper, which opened in 1973, is the second tallest building in the United States. I toured it about fifty years ago when I chose Chicago as the first big city that I would explore. Now, looking up in the sky on this Friday of February 2, 2018, the hotel lobby lights reflected in the window to give the illusion of four flying saucers hovering in the sky above Chicago. This photograph is not manipulated in any way, it is as the camera recorded it. I did not even correct the perspective of the skyscrapers. Since I am fond of science fiction concepts and motifs, I considered this a lucky little life reward for my unpleasant life task today of bringing my late father’s nursing home personal injury lawsuit forward in the First Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois.

I have rarely had nightmares in life, but the night before I drove up to Chicago on this trip, images of monsters kept interrupting my sleep, evil, vicious, nasty-colored monsters with sharp-edged shapes, gruesome like my father’s foot was when it fell of his bone due to nursing home neglect, monsters hurtling at me from all directions, with wild and uncontrolled anger. Interestingly, my semi-sleeping self first flinched in horror, then used the monsters for target practice, punching each one smartly in the face as it reached for me, I ignored their fangs and extrudants. Now that seems like a very tough response from the semi-consciousness of an old lady, however, c'est moi. I did not get a lot of sleep that night, but I got enough.